Integrated optics chips are usually made of lithium crystal/waveguide composite which is made of a suitable lithium crystal substrate, such as lithium niobate (LiNbO.sub.3), and one or more waveguides that are embedded in the substrate in various geometries and run through the length of the substrate. Current methods for coupling light into and out of integrated optics chips, which are available for commercial uses, all depend on physically attaching optical fibers to one or more ends of the embedded waveguide(s). Such attaching effort is known as "pigtailing". However, pigtailing has the serious drawback of requiring the performance of a precise alignment of the waveguide and the fiber using a complicated optical bench setup and the use of epoxy to maintain the fiber in the desired place.
Pigtailing is labor-intensive, unsuitable for high-volume production of integrated optics chips that are factory-ready for optical coupling application and does not result in a design robust enough for use in military environments. Furthermore, the epoxies used can cause mechanical alignment failures due to temperature changes and expansion in the fibers. Also, commercially available integrated optics chips do not have electronics in or on them, necessitating the end user to supply the supporting electronics separately and make their own electrical connections to the chips.